Public Story
The Silent Death
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© 2024 Kiana Hayeri
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN | 2017-07-15: 11 year old ???? care for her mother inside the oncology OPD of Jumhuriat Hospital while she receives her first dose of chemo treatment. 38-year-old Fatema was married off at age of 12 to a man 23 years older, Fatema's body have been through 21 pregnancy, with only 12 of the babies surviving. Married to an addicted man and struggling with extreme poverty, she had to give up two of her children at the time of birth and marry off her daughters at young age. Her 11 year old daughter (pictured here) was engaged when she was only 10. When Fatema was diagnosed with breast cancer, it took her 7 months to gather the money needed for her surgery and while she was supposed to be back 20 days later for her first chemo session, she was only able to borrow money for her chemo, a little over 3500 afs ($57), a month and a half later.
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© 2024 Kiana Hayeri
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN | 2017-07-17 | Parwin (44), feeling weak after receiving her 7th chemo treatment, lay down to rest in their small two room house in the neighbourhood of Fazel Beig. Her youngest son, Milad (4), noticing her mom is not feeling well lays down next her, hugging her tight.Darwin, herself, finished the 12 years of high school in 6 years, by studying on her own and taking exams. At age of 16, she entered the med school. When she was 19, after finishing her third year of university, she married her husband who is illiterate, and forced her to abandon her studies. She stayed home and raised her 8 kids, 2 of which have died from sickness. Despite her husband not liking his daughters going to school, Parwin fought for every one of them. Her oldest daughter, Fatema (17) just graduated from high school and wants to go to university to become a midwife. Her youngest daughter, just being 8, is in grade 5. Parwin and Fatema's greatest fear is that if she doesn't survive the cancer, the father will marry off the older daughters and stop them from going to school.
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© 2024 Kiana Hayeri
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN | 2017-07-17 | Parwin's son, Mohammad (8) walks into the room.
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© 2024 Kiana Hayeri
KABUL | AFGHANISTAN | 12/24/17 | Dr Naseeb Washes her hands after performing a physical check up followed by an ultrasound on a young patient who had come in with her mother after feeling a mass in her left breast. Istiqlal Hospital is the only public mammogram facility in Afghanistan which offers free clinical diagnosis for Breast Cancer at early stages.
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© 2024 Kiana Hayeri
KABUL | AFGHANISTAN | 12/24/17 | A huge mass is visible in a patient's mammogram. After reviewing her mammogram result Dr Naseeb referred her to a private lab for biopsy so the nature of the mass could be determined. Istiqlal Hospital is the only public mammogram facility in Afghanistan which offers free clinical diagnosis for Breast Cancer at early stages.
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© 2024 Kiana Hayeri
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN | 2017-07-12: Dr Hazeen and Dr Nafissa put on stitches after performing a mastectomy on a breast cancer patient, 72-year-old Shafiqa, inside Jumhuriat Hospital. The operation alone cost 10,000 afs (about $165) which is very costly for average Afghans. Her son got into an argument with one of the doctors and said she is too old and doesn't worth 10,000 afs before walking out of the waiting room.
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© 2024 Kiana Hayeri
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN | 2017-07-15: Jamila (41) is prepared by the doctors and nurses for her first chemo treatment. Jamila and her husband travelled all the way from their village in Kunduz to Kabul, after the growing tutor in her left breast spread to her armpit and the pain became unbearable. In Kabul she was diagnosed with breast cancer stage four that has metastasis. She doesn't have long to live and she knows that. While holding on to a smile that once in a while disappears out of pain, talks about her rare marriage, a marriage out of love, with the man who is 6 years younger than her. Before leaving her village and knowing that she has probably reached the end, Jamila found her husband, whom she's still in love with, a wife. Someone who will continue to love and care for him and will be a mother to her 2 children.
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© 2024 Kiana Hayeri
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN | 2017-07-17 | Abdul Jamal (55) holds the tutor removed out of her wife's breast, Bibi Shah (54). It was handed to him so that he can take it to a lab to be tested. Bibi Shah was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer, and had traveled all the way from Mazar Sharif to Kabul after local doctors could not diagnose her illness.
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© 2024 Kiana Hayeri
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN | 2017-07-19 | Saraj Gol (62) signs off on the final exams of the student on the last day of school. She has had two surgery on her left breast after she was diagnosed with breast cancer, first time in India and second time in Pakistan. Saraj Gol, a mother to 3 sons, continue her chemo treatment in Kabul while working full time as a teacher at an all-girl high school.
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© 2024 Kiana Hayeri
KABUL | AFGHANISTAN | 12/20/17 | An empty surgical room inside the ward dedicated to breast cancer inside Istiqlal Hospital. Some facilities are build inside Istiqlal Hospital but has left abandoned due to lack of trained doctors or equipments.
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© 2024 Kiana Hayeri
KABUL | AFGHANISTAN | 9/1/18 | Midwife Bahara discuss breast cancer and self examination with attendants inside maternal and pediatric ward. Everyday, Midwife Bahara walks around Badakhshan Regional Hospital to educate patients and their companions, men and women, on carrying topics from Breast feeding to breast cancer and self examination. The monthly schedule determines the topic she is supposed to discuss. She uses repetition very often as most attendants are illiterate or poorly educated, therefore she repeats every fact several time and questions them to make sure they have fully understood it.
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© 2024 Kiana Hayeri
KABUL | AFGHANISTAN | 8/15/18 | Shirbanoo (30) from Qalabas village in Helmand province received her first chemo treatment at the oncology ward of Jumhuriat hospital. She traveled to Kabul after the pain caused by a stiff mass, resting in her breast for over a year, became unbearable. She is diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer and doesn't have long to live. She had never left her home and small village. Having left 8 of her children, she traveled to Kabul alone with her 8 months old son, Obaidullah, she suffers from enormous amount of anxiety. However, she hasn't been told that her cancer is terminal.
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© 2024 Kiana Hayeri
KABUL | AFGHANISTAN | 9/1/18 | Midwife Bahara discuss breast cancer and self examination with attendants inside maternal and pediatric ward. Everyday, Midwife Bahara walks around Badakhshan Regional Hospital to educate patients and their companions, men and women, on carrying topics from Breast feeding to breast cancer and self examination. The monthly schedule determines the topic she is supposed to discuss. She uses repetition very often as most attendants are illiterate or poorly educated, therefore she repeats every fact several time and questions them to make sure they have fully understood it.
